What college will help me train for the Tour de France?

The 2011 Tour de France recently ended with one of the most exciting finishes in its long history.  The winner, Cadel Evans from Australia, was never in the lead during the three weeks of racing until the final time trial the day before the jaunt into Paris.  After more than 2,000 miles of racing he won by less than two minutes.  Watching the race on TV was like viewing a travelogue of the entire French countryside.  The pictures of the racers, the picturesque towns,  and the stunning Alps were spectacular from helicopters and motorbikes following the peloton.

American colleges support all kinds of sports, including cricket and fencing, and a handful have cycling.  If you're a high school student who is a competitive cyclist and you have an interest in going to college and racing on the varsity team, where would you go?  What colleges have competitive cycling, and even give scholarships for riding?  If you said Marian University in Indianapolis that is a good start.

Marian has varsity cycling for both men and women, and in May, they won their 15th national championship (www.muknights.com).  Other cycling colleges include Lindenwood University in Missouri, Union College in Kentucky, and Cumberland University in Tennessee.  For a full listing go to www.usacycling.org/ncca/ and look for “Varsity Teams.”  For other universities, such as Wisconsin and RPI, they have club teams that race, but they do not have varsity status.  All of this competition is overseen, not by the NCAA, but by the National Collegiate Cycling Association.

Stupid Grammar Advice

I know many of you rising seniors have just glimpsed the summer horizon, where your college applications await and especially, that hideous and dreaded monster, the college essay.  A conscientious few (or more likely, your parents) might have even picked up a coaching book on how to be an essay-writing star.  Along with general style advice, the books all emphasize the importance of correct grammar.  Some will even suggest buying The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White, a book praised for decades by English teachers across the country.

When I was in school, teachers spoke of it in reverent tones as if its words on English usage came from God on stone tablets.  So imagine my surprise when I discovered recently, an essay written two years ago by a professor of linguistics to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Elements first publication, an essay entitled “50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice” by Geoffrey K. Pullum and published in the April 17, 2009, issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education [http://bit.ly/qW4l8H].

Professor Pullum  knows his stuff and has the credentials to take Mr. Strunk and Mr. White to task.   As head of linguistics and English language at the University of Edinburgh, he is co-author (with Rodney Huddleston) of The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Cambridge University Press, 2002).   The professor is the little kid in the crowd who tells everyone that the Emperor has no clothes.  To be more graphic, if this had been a knife fight there would not have been enough left of Mr. Strunk or Mr. White to put in a small envelope to mail to the Pearson Education Company, the publisher of Elements. 

Calling the authors “grammatical incompetents,” he describes much of the style advice as harmless, but criticizes the advice on grammar as “atrocious” and that it “does real damage.”  He cites example after example of incorrect usage, slashing hard at the authors’ attempts to describe passive vs. active voice.  I don't often get to see one author so ruthlessly clobbering other authors, especially grammarians, and ones who have been worshiped for so long.   It's quite refreshing.  Luckily, Mr. Strunk and Mr. White have gone on to the great library in the sky and know nothing of this carnage.  Prof. Pullum's humorous and insightful opinions on language can be read on a regular basis at http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/. 

Five Biggest Myths About College Admissions

The drive by students and parents to analyze and de-mystify the college admissions process gives rise to numerous theories based on anecdotes, half-truths, and general misinformation.  Lots of these false ideas live on year after year, and, despite the best efforts of college counselors to debunk them, they are still around.  Andrew Rotherham writes about education in the “School of Thought” column for TIME.com.  Here’s his list of the top five myths of college admissions.

Five Biggest Myths About College Admissions

 by Andrew J. Rotherham,(from Time Magazine, May 5, 2011

Myth No. 1: Getting rejected means you're just not [insert school name] material.

Myth No. 2: You're going to earn based on where you learn.

Myth No. 3: Affirmative action rigs the process.

Myth No. 4: The wait list never moves.

Myth No. 5: Once you choose a school, you're stuck for four years.

To read the article and see his explanations of these myths click here.

Your College Experience: Will It Be The Best Four Years of Your Life?

You know you’re going to have a good time at college:  parties, living with friends, hanging out, parties, a smidgen of beer, football games, a little studying, did we mention parties…Hey, what’s not to like?  And when it’s all over, you have reunions!

As a high school senior contemplating your upcoming college career, it’s worth a few minutes to consider what true substance you want out of your college experience.   When your parents, in a weak moment, say “We just spent $200,000 sending you to college.  What did you get out of it?   What will you say?

Over 100 years ago, William DeWitt Hyde, the President of Bowdoin College, wrote "The Offer of the College," a mission statement known to all Bowdoin students since then.

As described by Barry Mills, the current Bowdoin president, “This offer spelled out a vision of the aspirations of a liberal education appropriate to the early 20^th century. Many elements of it still have currency one hundred years later.”

No matter where you go to college, you want to make sure your time there is valuable and, beyond the parties, truly becomes “the best four years of your life.”

The Offer of the College

To be at home in all lands and all ages;
to count Nature a familiar acquaintance,
and Art an intimate friend;
to carry the keys of the world's library in your pocket,
and feel its resources behind you in whatever task you undertake;
to make hosts of friends...who are to be leaders in all walks of life;
to lose yourself in generous enthusiasms and cooperate with others for common ends –
this is the offer of the college for the best four years of your life.

President Mills' essay can be found on the Bowdoin College website.

Liberal Arts Education as a Foundation for Our Democracy

Do you, as a Business Major in college, make fun of your classmates who major in history or philosophy? Are you an engineering student who can’t understand why any thinking person would study Shakespeare or Milton?  Or, maybe you are a parent who won’t pay for any college course that doesn’t have an obvious practical application in the job market, like accounting or nursing.

If the need for a liberal arts education escapes you, take a look at 'Degrees for What Jobs?' Wrong Question, Wrong Answers  published in The Chronicle of Higher Education on May 1^st .

This commentary by Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, gives a clear and articulate argument for the importance of the liberal arts curriculum.  She takes great issue with a new report by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices called "Degrees for What Jobs? Raising Expectations for Universities and Colleges in a Global Economy."

Ms. Schneider makes a great case for a broad education in the humanities that is as important for our democracy as it is for business.  For you business majors, this is a case supported by 76% of business leaders in a recent survey who need employees who can think and communicate clearly.